Comments on: Bank to “Eco-Terrorists”: Don’t worry, we’ll take your money, too!

By: Will Sandwich

Will Sandwich — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:47:46 +0000

Here's all the info on that ad. I would have sworn Weiden+Kennedy had something to do with it, but no.

http://www.splendad.com/ads/show/2624-HSBC-Lumb...

By: abovegroundpool

abovegroundpool — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:52:05 +0000

Nice to know other people are hating these ads as much as I.

It’s smart marketing, I must say, like Manhattan Mini Storage’s sortof-but-not-too political ads, except that Manhattan Mini Storage is a) not an International Bank and b) actually doing some good for carriage horses in NYC.

Smart marketing is going to happen, and logging and demos and “eco-terrorism” are enough in the news that they are going to be used. What matters, then, is how we absorb the information. I do pay attention to the ads because they’re smarter and more interesting than the usual ones, but know that all it means is that HSBC had enough $ and smarts to hire someone plugged into this vernacular. It doesn’t make them better or worse than any other huge bank. Just a little appealing and familiar and a little repulsive.

By: ashley

ashley — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:42:00 +0000

UGGGGGH i just threw up in my mouth after watching that. i would seriously love to know the relevance of that ad and international banking, at least on the surface. of course under the surface this is just propaganda against people who care about the environment enough to do something that doesnt involve buying the latest green thing about it…

By: Harry

Harry — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:35 +0000

I’ll remove everything wood from your wife…

But in all seriousness, your wife is hott!

No really, just because we’re coerced by our culture to use certain products doesn’t mean their production is ethical, and doesn’t mean we should be okay with how they’re produced no matter how destructive. What an incredibly stupid premise for you to operate under!

By: Joe

Joe — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 18:15:41 +0000

Harry..If that is how you feel then I suggest you remove everything wood from your life.

By: Harry

Harry — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 07:47:01 +0000

Joe said:

“There is nothing wrong with logging! Loggers provide the wood for the house you live in, the desk you write at and the pencil you use.”

Just like there is nothing wrong with rape…It feels good, it kills time, and it burns calories!

By: Harry

Harry — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 07:44:26 +0000

“Of course there is nothing wrong with “legal” logging.”

Yeah, because legal logging never decimated a forest, dumped silt into creeks and rivers, killed owls and murrelets and salmon, or poisoned a watershed with herbicides!

By: Will Potter

Will Potter — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 06:55:01 +0000

“That a bank will go so far as to poke its nose in matters which it knows nothing about (i.e. social justice movements and their various tactics), and then have the audacity to interpret those matters and transform into sensationalistic images, is appalling.”

Great way of saying it. This didn’t surprise me, but it just got under my skin to see an international bank interpret and then transform a scene like this to sell sell sell.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:39:40 +0000

Joe: Of course there is nothing wrong with “legal” logging. It’s illegal logging of old growth forest, logging prior to a decisions being made and then claiming ‘it was an honest mistake’, and using money and influence to force decisions to the detriment of the majority, in favor of short term monetary benefit for the few, that we are concerned about.

By: lantz.

lantz. — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:16:27 +0000

Thanks to my mostly useless degree in film, I can sort of assume the production of this bullshit propaganda video cost a LOT of money. It looks like they shot it on high definition, maybe even on 16MM or 35MM film, which is less likely but entirely possible. The video will be far cheaper than the film, but still costs a lot. You have to pay your cast and crew, secure locations, have craft services, pay for transfer, dubbing, etc etc etc.

I watched it without the sound because the computer I’m on doesn’t have a sound card. And it was still infuriating. Capitalism is such a dirty, dirty thing. That a bank will go so far as to poke its nose in matters which it knows nothing about (i.e. social justice movements and their various tactics), and then have the audacity to interpret those matters and transform into sensationalistic images, is appalling. But it’s also to be expected.

Banks – ALL BANKS – are tools of The State. Abolish banks, and capitalism doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on. Abolish government, and the monster comes crumbling down. But don’t expect the corporate media to paint activists in any sort of positive light, regardless of their cause. It just illustrates that we need to fight harder, and stronger.

By the way, Joe, what’s your badge number?

- lantz.